Weremuggle
by Heather Young
Summary: My answer to what happens if a muggle becomes a werewolf. Very random story, but please read anyway.
1. in St Mungo's

Rating: G

Summery: I'd wondered what happens to muggle werewolves, and this is my answer to that. This takes place at the beginning of July after the stuff that happens in OotP. (Warning: this is a very random story.)

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, which is the property of J.K. Rowling. The Warner Bros own the movie rights, but as I base this solely on the books, I'm not infringing on them. The hospital and the Healers are Rowling's; Chandra and Ms. Paleo are mine.

*******Chapter 1*******

Chandra Loup looked up at the ceiling. There were some crystal bubbles floating in the middle of it, and they seemed to be the room's lights, but that couldn't be right. Crystal bubbles typically did not give off light, and they never floated. She must be hallucinating. Yes that was it - she must have hit her head on something, and now the injury was causing her to hallucinate. That would also explain her headache, and why she didn't know how she'd got here or even where "here" was.

She tried to remember what had happened.

She'd snuck out and gone for a walk in the park near her house. She remembered looking up and seeing a full moon - that's why she'd gone for the walk in the first place. Moonlight always made her feel peaceful. Then out of nowhere this huge black thing, she'd assumed it was a stray dog because what else could it be?, had leaped out from behind a tree and tried to bite her leg off. It had only gotten in two chomps when she'd hit it in the side of the head with her right hand - the one with Granny's silver ring on it - and had cut it slightly with the ring, causing it to whimper and run off. Then she'd passed out.

"Ah, that's it," she thought in relief, "when I passed out, from shock or whatever, I must have hit my head on a rock and that's now causing me to see things floating in the middle of the ceiling." Happy that she'd solved one mystery at least, she tried to sit up and look around. This proved to be a bad idea, as it caused her head to pound even more furiously than before. She collapsed back down with a groan.

Evidently, someone heard her, because almost immediately there was a man's face hovering over her. "How are you feeling?" the face asked anxiously.

"My head hurts and I'm hallucinating," Chandra said perfectly calmly. "Where am I?"

The face frowned. "Hallucinating? You shouldn't be. What is it that makes you think that?"

"Crystal bubbles don't float," Chandra said, pointing at them.

The face looked at the ceiling, then back. "But those are just - oh." A look of shocked comprehension spread over the face. "You're not - you're a mu- er, one of those, I see...um, just a minute, alright?"

"Alright." Chandra settled back down and dozed off again.

When she woke up for the second time, there were two men's faces hovering over her. "Can you sit up?" the new face asked. "Only, I need to explain some things to you and it would be easier for us to talk if you were upright."

"I tried," Chandra said. "It makes my headache worse."

The new face turned to the first one. "Pye, could you please fetch the headache cure?"

"Yes, Sir!" The Pye-face left. A few minutes later it reappeared again, along with a hand holding a spoon. The hand put the spoon in Chandra's mouth and something vile-tasting went down her throat, causing her headache to disappear. Chandra sat up.

She was in a small, narrow room, with dark oak walls and only one window. Most of the light came from the crystal bubbles, which still insisted on impossibly floating. There were several beds in the room, only one of which besides hers was occupied. The person in it looked rather green. Chandra saw that the two faces were attached to bodies dressed in lime green - dresses? dressing gowns? with a crossed bone and stick symbol over their hearts.

"Am I in a hospital?" she asked. "It's a very strange one."

The older man (the second face) sighed slightly. "Yes, you are in a hospital. That's part of what I have to explain to you. You're not in an ordinary hospital."

"I'm not in a looney bin, am I?" Chandra asked, this possibility having just occurred to her. Maybe the floating bubbles and men in dresses were signs of a deranged mind.

The older man smiled slightly while Pye shook his head vigorously. "No, don't worry about that. How shall I put this?" He paused to think. "Miss -?"

"Loup. Chandra Loup."

"Miss Loup, do you believe in magic?"

Chandra laughed. "Not since I was a gullible five-year-old. I've got a nutty friend who does, though. Keeps insisting it's all around us if only we look right."

The man looked serious. "Well then, Miss Loup, the first thing I need to explain to you is that your friend is right. Magic is all around you if only you look right."

"I don't get you."

He waved a hand at the ceiling. "Those bubbles, for example, are not hallucinations, as Mr Pye informs me you believe, but are held up there by magic."

"You mean 'magic' as in an actual spell? Like in wizards and stuff in fantasy books?"

"I mean precisely that."

"I'm sorry, but April Fool's Day was three months ago."

"I am not joking, Miss Loup. How can I convince you? For I am afraid that I will have to convince you, or you will not believe the rest of what I have to explain to you."

Pye had been nodding and shaking his head very energetically with every statement of the other man's. Now the older man said over his shoulder, "Pye, it's been an hour - please give Ms Paleo her potion."

"Yes, Sir!" and Pye practically bounded across the room to the green person's side.

"Talking about potions and stuff isn't going to convince me of anything," Chandra said, cynically. "And where am I?"

"You won't believe me, but you are at St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries; the dangerous bites ward."

"You're right. I don't believe you."

"Would it convince you if I did some magic in front of you? Nothing big, obviously, as we can't disturb other patients."

"It might."

The man took a long, thin stick out of his pocket. "Papilio!" Several butterflies streamed out of the end of the stick.

Chandra shook her head. "Sorry, but those could easily have been up your sleeves. You do have rather baggy sleeves."

The man frowned in annoyance. "We do not have time to play games, but as you must accept magic before you will understand..." he pointed his stick at her, "Commulatus Coloris!"

Chandra saw her hands turn bright pink with purple spots. She pulled up her sleeves, and saw that the colour change spread all the way up her arms, and she was willing to bet the rest of her looked like that too.

Chandra's eyes bulged. "Wow! Okay, you've got me convinced. Could you, um, change me back now, please?"

"Reconcilio Coloris!"

"Thanks. Er, who are you, anyway?"

"Your welcome. I am Hippocrates Smethwyck, the healer in charge, and that," he jerked his head at Pye over by the green woman, "is Augustus Pye, the trainee healer."

"Okay, but what the heck am I doing in a magical hospital?"

"Well, I'm afraid Miss Loup that you were...well, bitten by a werewolf last night. You are lucky he ran off before he killed you."

"You're telling me werewolves exist?"

"Yes."

"And I was bitten by one?"

"Yes."

"But wouldn't that mean that I..it would mean I..." She couldn't bring herself to say it. But she didn't have to - Healer Smethwyck said it for her.

"Yes, Miss Loup - it would mean that you are now a werewolf yourself."

******* ******* *******

A.N: Another chapter at least, maybe more coming. I'm not sure where this is going, like I said in the summery, I'm just trying to figure out what happens to muggle werewolves (I mean, you obviously can't memory charm them when they transform once a month, can you?) About names: Chandra means "moon" (I'm not sure where it's from, I've got friend named that, which is how I know), and "Loup" is French for wolf, so together it's "moon-wolf", which is a way of saying werewolf. "Paleo" just means old, because the patient is an old lady. This is the second version of this chapter - in the first one, he only did the butterfly spell, and it was pointed out to me that even a mild sceptic would need more convincing than that. As accepting magic is a fairly major part of the story, I overrode my lazier instincts and fixed it. I don't think anyone would be sceptical after turning colours, so I'm not going to change it again. All Latin for spells courtesy of the Latin translating site www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm


	2. a lot of questions

Rating: G

Summery: See first chapter.

Disclaimer: Again, see first chapter. (Lazy, aren't I?)

---Chapter 2---

Chandra stared at him. Werewolves were something you read about in horror stories. How could they exist? How could she, herself, be one?

"That's impossible," she stated flatly. "There's no way I can be a werewolf. They don't exist!"

Healer Smethwyck smiled at her sadly. "Five minutes ago you were saying magic didn't exist," he said, gently, "and now you know it does. I assure you, werewolves do exist."

"Then how come more people don't get bitten?"

"There are laws and regulations in place to make sure that does not happen, and when it does, it is kept very quiet from non-wizards like yourself. _You_ should not have been bitten yourself, but you have the misfortune of living in the same neighbourhood as a werewolf with a death wish. He was bitten last Christmas, and it was a very long time before he'd even talk to anybody. We only discharged him last month, as melancholy werewolves can be very dangerous. We thought he had finally accepted the situation...," he heaved a sigh. "We were wrong. He was trying to get himself killed last night, when he ran into you. Thought if he attacked somebody, they would naturally destroy him in the course of self-defence." He snorted, as if he had never heard of anything so obtuse. "Completely illogical man."

Chandra tried to think of another reason why she couldn't be a werewolf, and came up with the fact that this man hadn't proven that she was yet. She said, "Okay, for the sake of the argument let's say that I believe werewolves exist. That doesn't mean I'm one."

"Can you think of any other reason why you would be in a magical hospital? Or why I wouldn't tell you if there was?"

Chandra had to admit he had a point there. She tried to think of something else to argue, and her gaze fell on her right hand. "I'm wearing silver," she said, "and aren't werewolves - er, allergic or whatever to silver?"

"Only in their transformed state," the Healer said. "In their human form they are exactly like any other human. But it was probably that ring that saved you."

Chandra couldn't think of anything else at all to argue with, except her own disbelief and unwillingness to except what she was hearing, but she didn't think this very matter of fact man would accept that as an argument.

He seemed to sense what she was thinking anyway. "I realize this must be very hard for you to accept," he said quietly, "it is even for people who knew about werewolves beforehand, and it must be doubly hard for you. I'll leave you to think about it now, but if you need either myself or Mr Pie, please don't hesitate to give us a shout." He left.

So, Chandra lay there and thought about it. On the one side (the bit of her brain that didn't want to have to change the way it thought argued) things like magic and werewolves just _didn't exist_. They didn't. On the other side (the bit of her brain that wanted to believe in magic argued) the only two explanations she could think of for changing colours were 1. magic, or 2. she was going crazy.

Well, the first side argued, maybe you _are_ going crazy. No part of her wanted to have to admit that, so by default it was back to option 1. Ugh. She felt a bit like Winnie the Pooh with his sand pit - no matter in which direction she thought, she always ended up back at magic and werewolves.

She suddenly desperately wanted to know just exactly _what_ these people did with werewolves. Did they have werewolf hunters or something? Would she have to turn her bedroom into a cage? Were there werewolf boarding houses or something where they forced all the local werewolves to live? Chandra's mind kept presenting her with ideas like this for another forty-five minutes until Pye came back in to give Mrs. Paleo some more potion, by which time Chandra had worked herself up to the point of hysterics.

"Excuse me, Sir," she called down the ward, "but could I ask you some questions?"

Augustus Pye looked up with a surprised expression. "Of course you can, but maybe I should get -"

"I'm sure you'll be able to answer me as well as anyone else," Chandra interrupted.

The man shrugged, and came and sat down beside her bed. He even _sat_ energetically. "What do want ask?"

"What's going to happen to me now?"

Pye looked at her carefully. "Has Healer Smethwyck explained to you about, um, why you're here?"

"Yes. He said I was bitten by a werewolf."

Pye looked relived at not having to explain this himself. "Well, we have to keep you here at least until the actual bite heals. Werewolves bites are very nasty - I advise _not_ to look at your leg for a few days."

"It feels alright."

"That's because we gave you a potion that stops the pain," he explained. "We always do that first thing. Um, where was I, er, oh yes! After the bite heals, we still might have to keep you here, as we can't discharge anyone who hasn't come to terms with their, er, disease yet as that makes them more dangerous. Sometime in the next few days someone will be over from the Ministry of Magic to register you."

"Register me?"

"Put you on the Werewolf Register. Your name and address and so on. It helps enormously with keeping werewolf biting's down. Oh yes, and before you leave you have to sign some papers saying you won't tell anybody anything about magic or werewolves or any of it and that you except the full legal repercussions if you do."

"Not even my family?"

"Well, _they'll_ have to be told I suppose. Seeing as you live with them. I'm not quite sure about that."

"What about after I'm out of here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Will I have to put bars on my window or something?"

The trainee healer suddenly beamed at her. "Oh no, no, no, that's not necessary _at all_. It _used_ to be, but then they discovered the werewolves bane potion, so drastic measures like that aren't used anymore."

"What's this potion thing do?" Chandra asked warily.

"Well, if you take it in the week preceding the full moon, it prevents your mind from going completely, so you can still think like and not like a bloodthirsty monster, which means you know to just curl up on your bed and not go attack anybody. It really is an _enormous_ advance in the treatment of lycanthropy." He looked as proud as if he had invented it himself.

"Lywhaty? And how do I get this potion?"

Pye looked slightly abashed. "Sorry, it's lycanthropy, it's the technical term for the werewolf sickness. And we give you the potion - you have to make sure you come in once a month before the full moon in order to get your, um, prescription."

"I see."

"We give you a pass, showing you're supposed to, and that you're not just poking around where you shouldn't be," he assured her anxiously. He seemed to think this was something she was supposed to be worried about, but Chandra thought that that was probably the least of her worries.

"I see," she repeated. "Thank you." She smiled at him. He smiled back and left, leaving her with a lot more to think about on top of weather or not she believed the whole werewolf thing.

------- ------- -------

A.N.: Okay, I realize I'm not very clear on the whole does Chandra believe/doesn't she thing, but she's not supposed to be entirely sure herself yet. I may not have shown that too brilliantly. Oh well. Definitely another two chapters at this point, one for the Ministry visit, one for what happens when she gets home, which I _promise_ will be more interesting than this chapter. If not, feel free to throw tomatoes all you want at me. Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up quicker, but as I haven't had my computer since April (just came back yesterday) the delay was not entirely my fault.


	3. a vist from the ministry

Rating: G

Summery: See first chapter.

Disclaimer: See first chapter. The idea about extremists who campaign for muggles to not be considered beings is from the introduction to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, written by J.K. Rowling in aid of Comic Relief.

Chapter Three

Chandra was still in the hospital two days later. She was feeling very bored, as there was nothing to do and no one to talk to except the healers, who were too busy for much conversation. She wondered whether her parents had been told anything about where she was.

She was just finishing her lunch (and playing "let's eat this very, very slowly, as at least that's better than not doing anything at all") when Healer Smethwyck came down the ward, an official looking young man with a briefcase trailing behind him. They stopped at Chandra's bedside, and she hurriedly finished off her last few bites.

"This is Mr Wilson, Chandra," the Healer told her. "He's just going to ask you a few questions." He left. Mr Wilson smiled at her in a friendly/nervous sort of way.

"Hello," Chandra said, smiling back. "Would you mind sitting down? Only it's going to give me a bit of a crick in my neck if you keep standing there the whole time."

"Oh. Yes. Of course." Mr Wilson pulled over a chair and sat down. He opened his briefcase and pulled out a long blue quill, a bottle of ink, and some official looking parchments. "Right," he said, staring down at the papers on his lap. "I need to ask you some questions about yourself, so that we can keep track of you, and then I need you to sign some things."

"What do I have to sign?"

Mr Wilson raised his head so that he was looking at the wall just beyond Chandra's left ear. "Well, I'll explain when we get there, alright?" He gave his friendly/nervous smile again.

Chandra shrugged. "Alright."

Mr Wilson quickly snapped his gaze back to the parchments on his lap, as if relieved he didn't have to look at Chandra anymore. "Okay then. Let's get started. Full name?"

"Chandra Loup."

"No middle names?"

"No. My mother says you just lose them right away, so what's the point?"

Mr Wilson accepted that with a slight inclining of his head. "Address?"

"6669 Parksview Road."

"Age?"

"Sixteen."

"Who lives in the house with you?"

"My parents. I'm an only child, so no other kids."

"Their full names?"

"Caroline Alice Loup and Charles Edward Loup."

"Is that your normal hair colour?"

Chandra's eyebrows rose. "Yes."

"Hair black," Mr Wilson muttered to himself. "Eyes..." his eyes darted up to Chandra's and then back down to his papers. "Brown. Female." He raised his voice to address Chandra again. "Do you have any identifying features? Scars or birthmarks or whatnot?"

"No." Chandra felt slightly uncomfortable. The questions and Mr Wilson's behaviour made her feel as if she were being I.D.ed as some sort of criminal. "Why do you need to know all this?"

Mr Wilson looked genuinely surprised by the question. "So that we can keep an eye on you to make sure you do not bite anyone, of course."

"That didn't work so well with the guy who bit me," she said coldly.

"And to make sure that if you do, we will be able to immediately apprehend you; which, I assure you, is what happened to the man who bit you," he said, equally coldly, but still without looking up at her.

"Do you have any more questions, _sir_?"

"Does your family travel frequently?"

"No."

"Do you travel at all?"

"To my grandmother's sometimes. When my mother can wheedle it out of my father."

"Anywhere else?"

"No. We can't really afford it if you _have_ to know."

"Where does your grandmother live?"

"In the country. I don't remember the exact address."

"I see." Mr Wilson looked very upset about that. "You would still be in school, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, but I don't board there, if that's your next question."

Mr Wilson finished writing on his parchments, then pushed them over to her, handing over his quill at the same time. "Read this over, then sign that the information is correct, please." She did so, signing her name with a flourish. Signing things was much more fun with a quill than with a pen or pencil.

Mr Wilson pushed another writing covered piece of parchment at her. "This one too, please."

"What is it?"

"A statement that you will not revel the existence of magic, of a magical world, of magical or of witches and wizards. Or," and he looked her in the face for the first time, "of magical creatures such as werewolves like yourself." He looked away again, at the bed.

So. He thought of her as some sort of creature, rather than as human, did he? Wouldn't look at a werewolf, would he? Chandra was suddenly very angry. "And what if I don't sign?"

"Then I am afraid you can not be discharged from this hospital."

"So waltz in here, ask a list of the kind of questions one expects in a police interrogation, blithely tell me to my face that I'm some sort of creature rather than a human being, and then calmly threaten me with confinement just to round it off?"

"I am sorry that you are taking all this so personally." He sounded like he was reciting a school lesson. His nervous smile had come back. "I know you must be upset about all this, but it really isn't a threat. It's just the law."

"Funny sort of law."

"Not if you look at it from our point of view." There was a hint of condensation to his smile now. "It really would be disastrous for us if the non-magical world knew of our existence. One half would lock us up or kill us and the other half would be continually pestering us for easy magical solutions to absolutely everything in their lives. We'd have no peace. I'm sure you can see that concealment is really our best, our _only_, option. You really must sign those papers."

"Fine. But I suggest that you don't take moonlit walks in future, Mr Wilson." Chandra picked up the parchment and scanned it through, just to make sure of what she was signing to. Basically, it was what Mr Wilson had said it was: a declaration that she would not reveal the presence of magic, the magical world, those who practice magic, or anything else whatsoever to do with magic to anyone unless they were a witch, wizard, or magical creature, or a person who had to know about her condition for a good reason (such as having to live with her or being related to her); and that she would accept responsibility, and the consequences thereof, for any action of hers that breached this agreement. There was only one thing that worried her.

"It doesn't say what 'the consequences thereof' are."

"A disciplinary hearing, where any further discipline would be decided."

"I see. Alright, I'll sign." She raised the quill to do so, when Mr Wilson stopped her.

"One moment. We need a second witness – I'll run and get one of the healers." He disappeared from very swiftly, and – it seemed to Chandra – with some relief at being able to do so.

He appeared again in ten seconds, with the energetic Mr Pye after him. "_Now_ you can sign."

She did so, and after Misters Pye and Wilson had signed there names as witness, the later rolled up his parchments with a snap; put parchment, quill, and ink back in his briefcase with tidy haste; and disappeared out of the door again without even bothering to say good-bye.

"I hate that man," Chandra said through clenched teeth. "He made me feel sub-human."

Mr Pye heaved a sigh. "I'm afraid there are those like that."

"It's not my fault I'm a werewolf," Chandra continued.

Mr Pye looked startled. "Well, he's new to the job, so of course he's a bit nervous, but it was the fact that you're, er, not a witch that upset him."

It was Chandra's turn to look startled. "Why would that upset him?"

"Well, um, you see, well," he took a deep breathe, and said quickly, "there are some wizards and witches who consider non-magical people inferior. Get very high and mighty over it. Mr Wilson's one of them. He's actually a, um, a bit of an extremist."

"How do you know so much about this man, anyway?"

"My brother works with him."

"I pity your brother. And what do you mean, extremist?"

"Well, he's one of the, er, of the few, um, extremists who feel that mu- er, people like you, with no magic, that they, well, shouldn't be considered beings."

"WHAT?"

Mr Pye cringed, and said hurriedly, "Most of us don't think that, even the, er, the superior-type ones."

Chandra collapsed backwards onto the bed, her hands on her forehead. "Take me out of this crazy place! I just want to go _home_!"

Mr Pye suddenly beamed. "Well, we'll have to do a final check, but I think I can say with confidence that you'll be going home the day after tomorrow."

-------- ------- -------

A.N: I'm really sorry that that took so long, and that it still isn't very exciting. (Ducks flying tomatoes.) I SWEAR that the next chapter is going to be better, as Chandra will finally be out of the hospital. I have no idea where Mr Wilson's attitude came from, that was completely random and unexpected. He was named that because it sounded ordinary and ministry-ish. Chandra's parents first names are actually variants of the same name, which means "man" (as in completely human, as opposed to their poor werewolf daughter). Definitely one more chapter, maybe two, depending on whether or not I manage to get Chandra's first transformation into the next chapter.


	4. Full Moon

Rating: PG (It was forced up by some slight imagined violence at the very end.)

Summary: At long last, Chandra transforms! Just in time for Halloween, if a bit behind the full moon.

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

------- ------- -------

_Click_. The door swung open.

Chandra walked in, listening for any signs of her parents.

"Hello?"

No answer. She walked in a bit further.

"Mum, Dad, I'm home!"

Still no answer. She stuck her head around the door to the kitchen. Nobody there. She ran up the stairs, and at the top called out again, "Mum, Dad!?"

A head popped out of her mother's "office", where she painted. "Chandra! You're back! I've been so worried!" She came over and hugged her daughter.

"Hey, Mum."

Caroline Loup stopped hugging her daughter and instead held her at arms length, looking her up and down very severely. "Now, what exactly have you been up to, my girl? Not home for nearly a week, and strange people coming round babbling nonsense about magic and werewolves. You're not mixed up with drugs or anything like that, are you?"

Chandra inwardly rolled her eyes at her mother. "No, Mum, nothing like that!"

"Well then? All that mumbo-jumbo about magic can't be true."

Chandra took a deep breath. Obviously, the hospital people hadn't considered convincing her parents very important. "Actually, Mum... it is."

Her mother's face took on that hard look of hers that meant she was particularly angry about something. "You're lying. You're hiding something from me. And until I find out what it is and just exactly what you've been doing this past week, you are not leaving this house!"

Chandra sighed. Punished for telling the truth.

She really should have thought of a good cover story.

Chandra's father was home at dinner. Which made sense, as when she stopped and thought about it, Chandra realised it was a Wednesday, and her father had to work.

She could be incredibly stupid, sometimes.

"Hey, Dad!"

Chandra rushed down the stairs and into the arms of her very surprised father.

"Chandra! I'm so glad you're home, pet." He hugged his daughter fiercely. Like his wife, he stopped and held her at arm's length, looking her up and down searchingly. Unlike his wife, his first question was, "Are you alright? You weren't hurt or anything, were you? When those strange people started coming around I was scared you'd been kidnapped by some sort of medical research people, or one of those strange cults that keep cropping up."

Chandra gave her father a watery smile. "No, Dad, I wasn't kidnapped, not exactly anyway. But..."

"But?"

"I'm not entirely alright either. You see, well, that stuff those people told you... it's true."

A look of fear crept into her father's face. "True? But, but, Chandra pet, you can't be what they said. Werewolves are just fairy stories!"

Chandra shook her head. "No, Dad. It's true, I swear."

"It can't be," her father whispered, but his eyes showed how scared he was that he might be wrong.

Chandra's mother came in from the kitchen at that point. "Dinnertime, Charles." She smiled at her husband, then said rather stiffly, "Dinnertime, Chandra."

"What's the matter between you two," Charles Loup asked, looking worriedly from his wife to his daughter and back.

"Oh, so you haven't heard her story then?"

"Beg pardon?"

"Our daughter has been feeding me ridiculous stories about magic and werewolves in order to explain where she's disappeared to these last few days." Caroline advanced a step with every word, speaking in a dangerously quiet voice. "I shudder to think what the true story is that she feels it necessary to sink to such banalities to explain what's been happening!" She was now standing mere inches from husband and daughter.

"Well, Dear, maybe if that's what _she's_ been saying, and what those people were saying, well, maybe..."

Caroline turned her glare onto her husband. "You do not mean to tell me that you _believe_ all that nonsense, do you? It. Is. Impossible! IMPOSSIBLE!"

Charles said fairly calmly, "Well, yes, it _is _impossible, but–"

"BUT? How can there be a 'but' after the word 'impossible'?"

He took no notice of his wife's interruption. "But we are trying to find out what happened. Not whether or not it was possible. And I can't think of any other explanation. Can you?"

"Kidnapping!"

"For what purpose? Obviously not money."

His calmness was calming down her temper, as it always did. But it wasn't giving in without a fight. "Drugs! Or one of those crazy research people."

"Does she look like she's been drugged or experimented on?"

"Well, no, but, I mean –"

"My dear, we'd be able to tell if that was the case, and I doubt she would be home now. Your theory is just as improbable as what Chandra is telling us, you know."

"But at least it isn't impossible!"

Charles waited.

"Well...well, maybe they've been practising hypnotising techniques on her, or something!"

"I have a suggestion," Chandra cut in. Both her parents turned to look at her. "Why don't we all just wait for the full moon and see what happens? If nothing happens then we know I've been brainwashed."

"A good idea," her father said, cutting off any protestations from his wife. "Especially as I don't see what we can do about it in any case, so there's no point in arguing." His wife looked at him in disgust, but she merely turned around and marched off to the kitchen.

Chandra and her father looked at each other, shrugged, and followed.

------- ------- -------

The rest of the month was not good for Chandra. Her mother was unequivocally refusing to believe that what Chandra said could in the slightest way be true, and seemed to believe that her daughter was caught up in something dangerous, illegal, or both. Her father didn't seem to disbelieve her, but he didn't seem very ready to believe her either. He seemed to think that whatever was the matter there was nothing they could do about it and Thank God his daughter was alive and unharmed except for this strange idea that she was now a werewolf.

Chandra _had_ managed to slip off to get her potion, which had been a nerve-wracking experience. The entrance she had been directed to use was some sort of back-way in, which had been expressly created for the few people such as herself who weren't magic but had legitimate business in a magic hospital. Apparently, there had been several panicked riots back in the early days of the hospital when they had been forced to let non-magic patients in through the front door along with everybody else. There had been a few other people with her in the tiny room for people waiting for their potions, all of whom seemed to be concentrating on not catching anyone else's eye. Although several of them had looked curiously at her for a few minutes before dropping their eyes again. (She had supposed that it was fairly obvious that she didn't belong there, the way she stared at everything.) And then she had almost knocked over a youngish man with greying brown hair when she was leaving, she had been in such a hurry to get away from all those silent, depressed people. He'd been very nice about it though.

So now here she was, on the day of the full moon, waiting. Just waiting. Waiting to find out if it was all true, or just some elaborate hoax, or any other alternative the tiny hopeful but desperate corner of her brain could come up with.

She had been a jittery wreck all day. She couldn't concentrate on anything. At breakfast and lunch, she just sat at the table for hours, picking at her food, long after both her parents had finished and left. When she tried to read to take her mind off things her eyes wouldn't focus on the page properly, and she read every word beginning with a "w" as "werewolf". When she turned on the TV, her mind kept wandering off and she watched an entire show without even realising what show it was that she was watching. She tried doing other things, but simply couldn't find any interest in doing anything. But she felt a hopeless need to do _something_, anything, to burn off her energy and leave her too tired to think. Every so often she'd notice one of her parents standing there watching her go crazy. She could see the thought "drugs" in her mother's eyes when she caught her mother looking at her.

It was the worst day Chandra had ever had.

Dinner that night was a subdued affair. Chandra said nothing and didn't bother even picking at her food. Her parents' conversation fell flat every time they tried to get Chandra to join in. Eventually, Chandra just got up and went to go barricade herself in her room.

Earlier, in one of her fits of nervous energy, she had cleared the main part of her room of anything breakable or precious and had put them neatly into the wardrobe and locked it. She now locked her main door (unfortunately, only a simple slide bolt) and hauled her desk in front of it. Then she turned the lights off and sat down on her bed to wait.

So now here she was, waiting. Just waiting, in the dusk of a summer's day. The very last dregs of sunlight came in through her window, the shadows playing over her face, across her room, reaching for the opposite wall. She sat and watched the fingers of light retreat slowly, oh so slowly, towards her, as somebody hanging from a cliff might watch their grip start to slip. The light left the floor, then the edge of the bed, then her, and then it was gone altogether in that moment of transition before night comes in to really take hold.

And then the moon came up.

She could actually _feel_ it come up, could sense it moving before its beams came in through the window to taunt her. And then she felt the pain.

Chandra screamed with the shock and dread of the pain, and fell off the bed onto the floor as she felt her body start to change.

------- ------- -------

Downstairs, Caroline and Charles Loup jolted upright as they heard a scream rip through the quiet of the house.

"That came from Chandra's bedroom," Charles said agitatedly. His wife went pale. Without another word, or pause for thought, they both charged up the stairs towards their daughter's room.

------- ------- -------

Chandra imagined she could hear her spine crunch and snap as it changed shape, forcing her over onto all fours. She screamed again, only this time came out half howl. Her entire body pricked as it sprouted fur. She watched in horror as it sprang out of the backs of her hands, and then up her bare forearms. As she gave out a whine of self-pity at the sight, she heard her parents voices at the door.

"Chandra? Chandra what's going on in there?"

"Chandra? Are you alright? Chandra!?"

She tried to tell them to go away, to leave her alone, it wasn't safe, but all that came out was a growl.

------- ------- -------

Halfway up the stairs, they heard another scream, this one sounding much more animal. Their speed increased, and as they reached their daughter's door, they heard a whine coming out from behind it.

"Chandra?" Charles called. "Chandra what's going on in there?"

"Chandra?" Caroline called, simultaneously, "Are you alright? Chandra!?"

A growl was all that answered them. Charles tried the door. "She's bolted it, and shoved something in front of it as well."

"Wait," Caroline commanded, and ran into her office, coming out a moment later with some of the wire she used for hanging up her paintings. "Will this help?"

"It should." He took the wire from her and hastily fastened it into a hook, then shoved it through the crack between door and frame. The growling on the other side got louder.

------- ------- -------

Her hands shrank into paws and her nails curled into claws. She felt something starting to burn on her right hand. She turned her head to look at it, and saw the wire coming through the door. She growled at it. Why couldn't her parents realize that she _wasn't safe_ right now, and go away? She yelped as her tail bone suddenly lengthened into a real tail and got squished on the inside of her pants. The burning on her hand became hotter, and she yelped again.

------- ------- -------

Charles managed to catch the bolt hook as they heard the first yelp, and he had it drawn back by the second one. He and his wife started frantically shoving against the door.

------- ------- -------

She could vaguely hear scrapping sounds from somewhere near by, but she wasn't paying it any attention. Her paw hurt too much from what was burning it – Granny's silver ring that she always wore. She tried to shove it off with her other paw, but that didn't work, so she tore at it with her teeth (which was incredibly awkward as they were in the process of sprouting into fangs), trying to ignore the burning it caused her mouth. She got the vile thing off just as she felt twin twinges of pain where her ears were, and a second before the door burst open.

------- ------- -------

Caroline and Charles stumbled in through the suddenly unobstructed door, just in time to see their daughter's ears grow pointy and shift to the top of her head, which had become smaller, and lengthened into a dog-like snout. The werewolf looked at them and spat something shining out of its jaw. They left as quickly as they had entered, slamming the door, which they locked from the outside. They stood panting against it for some moments, listening to the sounds of their wolf-formed daughter coming from the other side.

"Well," Charles said eventually, then cleared his throat and tried again, "Well, it looks like she really is...really is...a werewolf." He finished in a half-whisper.

"Yes," Caroline said equally shocked. She turned to look at her husband. "Oh, Charles, what are we going to do? Our poor girl..." And she sank, sobbing, into his arms.

------- -------- -------

With some struggling, Chandra managed to pull herself out of her clothes. Amazingly, she could still manage to think like herself, which she guessed was due to that potion. She was happy about that. She hadn't liked the thoughts her wolf-self had sent her when her parents had come in. She mentally shuddered at the gory images of her tearing into their throats that the animal side of her seemed to delight in.

A sound came from the outside of the room. She cocked her head to listen, and her now much improved hearing could distinctly make out the sound of her mother crying. In complete agreement, she threw back her head and howled.

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A.N: Wow, that took a ridiculously long time. I'm really sorry, I was very busy at work, then university, and I didn't have internet access for about a month, and I took some time off to write another HP fanfic for this contest on another site. (I've posted it on here as well, it's called "Awakening", and I personally think it's a better story.) I am now officially going to be working on another story, but if I think of something else to add to this, I will. This is just the farthest I actually planned to go with this, but I don't think it's going to be officially finished sometime soon. Hope you enjoyed. Happy Halloween everyone!


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